Sustainability Update

Sustainability Champions celebrated

The Sustainability Champion Awards recognize individuals or groups at Santa Clara University who develop a campus culture of sustainability. The Office of Sustainability created these awards to celebrate their hard work and publicly honor their achievements.

Individuals or groups are nominated which includes a short description of why they should receive the award. Members of the Office of Sustainability vote on the nominees and select an award recipient for each category (staff, faculty, student, and group). Below are brief comments from nominators on the outstanding efforts and accomplishments of this academic year’s Sustainability Champion Award recipients.

Stephanie Hughes, Environmental Studies and Sciences (Faculty)
"Stephanie has done so much to use the campus as a living laboratory for sustainability. Her classes almost always include some component of sustainability at SCU: Her Joy of Garbage class has helped tremendously with longitudinal data collection about waste diversion at SCU. Her energy and environment class usually contributes to [the] Energy Challenge. This year, her ENVS 23 class is helping Facilities analyze recycled water composition. She has also promoted the Senate Bill about pharmaceutical take-back."

Chris Young, Building & Grounds, Facilities (Staff)
“Chris has helped support recycling and composting efforts for years. Chris has reduced the amount we send to landfills, saving the University money while enhancing SCU’s image and engaging the campus. Last year, he took a leading role in making the university switch to a responsible electronics hauler. He oversaw the expansion of our recycling program and helped develop a robust composting program—users of Leavey can compost their paper towels, and every campus event attendee can compost their paper plates!”

Andrew Noonan (student)
“Andrew’s impact has been tremendously positive ever since he started school! His enthusiasm and passion for sharing a connection to our natural environment and developing leaders of stewardship among his peers has deeply contributed to sustainability at SCU.”

“[He is] in charge of the Into the Wild Club, which regularly works with other groups and student organizations to encourage the love of the outdoors and sustainable habits. Into the Wild also helps to promote and work at [our] events like our Staff and Faculty Showcase at the Forge.”

“A core group from the Campus Recreation student staff, supervised by Janice, has implemented drastic improvements to Malley operations, going above and beyond their job descriptions. Campus Rec. has gone paperless at their front desk, has the goal of zero waste by 2020, and has developed an energy bar and paired shoe Terracycle brigade, which has been really successful- a lot of people have dropped their wrappers at Malley. Campus Rec is definitely stirring up some new cultural changes with sustainability on campus.”

The 2012-2013 Sustainability Champions were awarded at the Sustainability Celebration luncheon which took place on Wednesday, June 5th at the Forge Garden. View photos of the Champions.